Day 8

December 15: Day 8 Emily Meow. Woke up. White bread. Marmalade. Another open-back van picked us up today, and there were many people in it. Two Germans, two Danes, two Australians, us… and…. Two Dutch people. As if that weren’t wonderful enough, the Dutch guy had been an AFS student in high school, and studied for one year in Mexico!! We’re like twins. I love Dutch people. I think I have to move back to the Netherlands at some point. This amazingly cute and hilarious Thai woman showed us around the market to introduce us to some of the ingredients we would be using in the cooking class. She made two very notable comments about Thai cooking:     1.) “Thai people eat rice because we are happy.” (Good enough reason for me.)     2.) “In Thailand, we have rice noodles made from rice, and egg noodles made from egg… we also have glass noodles, but not made from glass. That would be too hard; you cannot eat that.” (Word.) We drove up to this organic farm and learned about the plants from the woman while walking around the garden picking basil and long beans etc. Then we each ground up our own curry pastes with a mortar and pestle. We actually made a lot of dishes. Today I made yellow curry with chicken, tom yam soup with prawns, cashew chicken, spring rolls, and…. Bananas in coconut milk…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS DESSERT! IT’S SO EASY TO MAKE AND I WILL EAT IT ALL DAY EVERYDAY WHEN I GET HOME. We got cookbooks, so I’m actually serious. After the class Joey and I headed over to the Sunday market where I finally bought those touristy elephant pants. I’m wearing them now haha. I also bought the last of my holiday prezzies for my fam, hooray. On the way back, Joey let me indulge in my one dream for Thailand… all I ever really wanted from this country was a real, Thai boba (bubble tea). And I got it. The best part was that Joey didn’t want his after all, so I got TWO bobas! Which was even better! Until I drank all of his and most of mine and ended up curled up in a ball on the bed feeling water-logged. Stuck out the pain. Finished my boba. I believe the saying, “youth is wasted on the young” is most appropriate here. Lovely this trip has been so far. Traveling tomorrow. Hopefully everything will run as smoothly as it has been. Goodbye for now. Emily PS: Joey says it feels like we are playing house. I agree. I say things like, “Did we turn off the bathroom light? Let me go back and check real quick…” and today I made him hold my purse while I tried on a sweater at the market. He didn’t like that very much. But I did. Lol.

Day 8, Dec 15 Joey Curry count is now to 6. Ate a bowl yesterday and a bowl today. Of curry that is. I didn’t eat any actual bowls. Prologue – Naturally, Emily and I have been spending a ton of time with each other. Like, I don’t think there has been another time in my life when I have spent this much time with one person for a week. And what happens when you start spending this much time with one person? You lose your conceptions of what is silly/weird/normal. So for example, sometimes when we are just hanging in the hostel, I will roll over onto her and say, “Leach!” (beacuase leaches do that?) Or we have whole conversations where no actual words are exchanged and instead we just mumbled and grunt and make weird noises before breaking out into laughter.  Sometimes, I growl at her. Today we did a cooking class. There was a lot of cooking, and a lot of eating. Like lots of eating. I had to save my list so I could remember. Today I learned to make the following: Green curry with chicken, vegetable Thai soup, chicken with cashews, pad thai, and mango with sticky rice. It was incredible. Literally, each dish was better than the one before. Which makes sense because I love desert and we started with the vegetable soup which wasn’t great. Highlights include: A really fun group of Dutch, Danish, German, and Australian folks, a really cute instructor lady who is pictured somewhere on this blog, eating the equivalent of three meals in 5 hours, receiving a cookbook with all the recipes, using a wok, and having tons of fun.  After the cooking class, we got dropped off at a market. Lilly (read previous posts for description of Lilly) told me about a really cool Sunday market that happens in Chiang Mai. Well, we asked to get dropped off there, but I think we got dropped off at a market that happens all the time because I saw this one yesterday when I was looking for the bookstore. But it was still cool and I almost bought a shirt with a cool frocket. Emily bought some stuff, including the classic “I went to South East Asia and all I got were these “ elephant design pants. We also got some boba after the cooking class. I’m not a big tea/coffee person (except diet peach tea Snapple. I live off that.), but I decided to get some boba anyways. Emily has been talking about getting some for days, but we haven’t yet. Until today, when we both got some. About half way through, I decided I didn’t like mine, so I gave it Em. She then drank both. Emily is a champ. On the walk back, we also noticed that our legs were covered in sticky burrs. IDK why anyone would care, but now you know. Tomorrow we leave for Koh Samui and Koh Phangan for the rest of our trip. We are now officially over the half-way mark, which is sad because this crazy adventure (IHP + travelling) is coming to a close, but I can’t deny that it will be great to be home and back at school. Peace and love friends.

December 15: Day 8

Emily

Meow.

Woke up. White bread. Marmalade.

Another open-back van picked us up today, and there were many people in it. Two Germans, two Danes, two Australians, us… and…. Two Dutch people. As if that weren’t wonderful enough, the Dutch guy had been an AFS student in high school, and studied for one year in Mexico!! We’re like twins. I love Dutch people. I think I have to move back to the Netherlands at some point.

This amazingly cute and hilarious Thai woman showed us around the market to introduce us to some of the ingredients we would be using in the cooking class. She made two very notable comments about Thai cooking:

    1.) “Thai people eat rice because we are happy.” (Good enough reason for me.)

    2.) “In Thailand, we have rice noodles made from rice, and egg noodles made from egg… we also have glass noodles, but not made from glass. That would be too hard; you cannot eat that.” (Word.)

We drove up to this organic farm and learned about the plants from the woman while walking around the garden picking basil and long beans etc. Then we each ground up our own curry pastes with a mortar and pestle.

We actually made a lot of dishes. Today I made yellow curry with chicken, tom yam soup with prawns, cashew chicken, spring rolls, and…. Bananas in coconut milk…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS DESSERT! IT’S SO EASY TO MAKE AND I WILL EAT IT ALL DAY EVERYDAY WHEN I GET HOME. We got cookbooks, so I’m actually serious.

After the class Joey and I headed over to the Sunday market where I finally bought those touristy elephant pants. I’m wearing them now haha. I also bought the last of my holiday prezzies for my fam, hooray. On the way back, Joey let me indulge in my one dream for Thailand… all I ever really wanted from this country was a real, Thai boba (bubble tea). And I got it.

The best part was that Joey didn’t want his after all, so I got TWO bobas! Which was even better! Until I drank all of his and most of mine and ended up curled up in a ball on the bed feeling water-logged. Stuck out the pain. Finished my boba. I believe the saying, “youth is wasted on the young” is most appropriate here.

Lovely this trip has been so far.

Traveling tomorrow. Hopefully everything will run as smoothly as it has been.

Goodbye for now.

Emily

PS: Joey says it feels like we are playing house. I agree. I say things like, “Did we turn off the bathroom light? Let me go back and check real quick…” and today I made him hold my purse while I tried on a sweater at the market. He didn’t like that very much. But I did. Lol.

Day 8, Dec 15

Joey

Curry count is now to 6. Ate a bowl yesterday and a bowl today. Of curry that is. I didn’t eat any actual bowls.

Prologue – Naturally, Emily and I have been spending a ton of time with each other. Like, I don’t think there has been another time in my life when I have spent this much time with one person for a week. And what happens when you start spending this much time with one person? You lose your conceptions of what is silly/weird/normal. So for example, sometimes when we are just hanging in the hostel, I will roll over onto her and say, “Leach!” (beacuase leaches do that?) Or we have whole conversations where no actual words are exchanged and instead we just mumbled and grunt and make weird noises before breaking out into laughter.  Sometimes, I growl at her.

Today we did a cooking class. There was a lot of cooking, and a lot of eating. Like lots of eating. I had to save my list so I could remember. Today I learned to make the following: Green curry with chicken, vegetable Thai soup, chicken with cashews, pad thai, and mango with sticky rice. It was incredible. Literally, each dish was better than the one before. Which makes sense because I love desert and we started with the vegetable soup which wasn’t great. Highlights include: A really fun group of Dutch, Danish, German, and Australian folks, a really cute instructor lady who is pictured somewhere on this blog, eating the equivalent of three meals in 5 hours, receiving a cookbook with all the recipes, using a wok, and having tons of fun. 

After the cooking class, we got dropped off at a market. Lilly (read previous posts for description of Lilly) told me about a really cool Sunday market that happens in Chiang Mai. Well, we asked to get dropped off there, but I think we got dropped off at a market that happens all the time because I saw this one yesterday when I was looking for the bookstore. But it was still cool and I almost bought a shirt with a cool frocket. Emily bought some stuff, including the classic “I went to South East Asia and all I got were these “ elephant design pants.

We also got some boba after the cooking class. I’m not a big tea/coffee person (except diet peach tea Snapple. I live off that.), but I decided to get some boba anyways. Emily has been talking about getting some for days, but we haven’t yet. Until today, when we both got some. About half way through, I decided I didn’t like mine, so I gave it Em. She then drank both. Emily is a champ. On the walk back, we also noticed that our legs were covered in sticky burrs. IDK why anyone would care, but now you know.

Tomorrow we leave for Koh Samui and Koh Phangan for the rest of our trip. We are now officially over the half-way mark, which is sad because this crazy adventure (IHP + travelling) is coming to a close, but I can’t deny that it will be great to be home and back at school. Peace and love friends.

Joey in his cooking outfit - the sombrero is a necessity 

Our amazing, cute, wonderful, sassy, and hilarious chef instructor

Believe it or not, this is a dragon fruit plant

Emily's yellow curry paste (left), Joey's green curry paste (right)

The cooking station 

Joey making Pad Thai! Maybe he'll make some for you if you ask nicely

Emily's excitement at the prospect of having not one, but TWO bobas - a joy that is pure and good